AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND POW KILLING IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER THESIS ...

[Pages:125]AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND POW KILLING IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF WORLD WAR II THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University-San Marcos

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree Master of ARTS

by Justin M. Harris, B.A.

San Marcos, Texas December 2009

AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND POW KILLING IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF WORLD WAR II

Committee Members Approved: _______________________________ James Pohl, Chair _______________________________ Mary Brennan _______________________________ Jeffrey Mauck

Approved: ____________________________________ J. Michael Willoughby Dean of the Graduate College

COPYRIGHT by

Justin Michael Harris 2009

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe everlasting gratefulness to many people who pleasantly involved themselves in helping me undertake this work. First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my committee members, Dr. James Pohl, Dr. Mary Brennan, and Dr, Jeffrey Mauck, who have supported me with their knowledge and patience. And to my family, I offer a heartfelt apology for talking of nothing else for the past two years. This manuscript was submitted on 10 December 2009.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................iv ASTRACT ....................................................................................................................vii CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................1 POW Killing in World War II Historiography...........................................2 Goals of the Study...................................................................................11

II. THE ADJUSTMENT STAGE.......................................................................13

The American Soldier and Combat Stress ...............................................16 The Heat of Battle...................................................................................18 III. THE TOUGHENING STAGE .....................................................................23

Fear of a False Surrender ......................................................................24 Utilitarian Factors .................................................................................30 Tactical Limitations................................................................................33 IV. THE COARSENING STAGE......................................................................39

Revenge for the Death or Wounding of a Comrade .................................41 Violations of the American Combat Ethos ..............................................45 The Biscari Incident ..............................................................................52 Inappropriate Enemy Behavior...............................................................62 V. THE BRUTALIZATION STAGE.................................................................69 Revenge for Enemy "Atrocities".............................................................71 Wholesale Condemnation of the SS.........................................................76 The 45th Division and the Liberation of Dachau......................................79

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Killing POWs for Amusement, Prestige, and Group Bonding..................92 VI. CONCLUSION.......................................................................................... 102 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 105 VITA .......................................................................................................................... 117

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ABSTRACT

AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND POW KILLING IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF WORLD WAR II

by

Justin M. Harris, B.A.

Texas State University-San Marcos December 2009

SUPERVISING PROFESSOR: JAMES POHL This study contends that American soldiers killed large numbers of Axis POWs during the war in Europe. Although the established rules of war did not completely break down as in the Pacific theater, the killing of POWs was an integral part of the American combat ethos because the desensitizing effects of total warfare produced a mental state conducive to the abandonment of the established rules of war. Any enemy soldier who knowingly, or unknowingly, violated the American perception of proper battlefield behavior often met with a fatal response. Moreover, American soldiers whose mental state had been significantly distorted by the brutality of their combat experience often had little compunction about killing enemy prisoner who did not violate these unwritten rules.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

On the evening of 8 July 1945, PFC. Clarence Bertucci enjoyed a few beers at a local bar in downtown Salina, Utah before stopping off at a caf? for coffee. Chatting casually with the waitresses he promised them something exciting would happen that night. He then strolled out to the temporary German POW camp at the east end of Main Street. Once inside the camp, Bertucci climbed a guard tower and loaded a belt of ammunition into the tower`s .30 caliber machine gun. He lowered the muzzle of the machine gun and pressed the trigger. Methodically, he swept the 43 tents of the German POWs, from left to right and back again. In 15 seconds of firing, Bertucci managed to hit 30 of the 43 tents before another GI could stop him. He wounded 20 Germans and killed six men outright. Three POWS died later at hospitals. When questioned about his act, Bertucci offered a simple explanation: he hated Germans, so he had killed Germans.1

Evidence clearly shows that the incident at Ft. Douglas was not an isolated incident. It fact, it was unusual only because it occurred after the war was over.2 In

1 Midnight Massacre, Time, 23 July 1945; Craig Froehlich, Tragedy Finds Resting Place in Fort Douglas, The Daily Utah Chronicle, 11 November 2002.

2 For a similar example see Emiel W. Owens, Blood on German Soil: An African American Artilleryman in World War II and Beyond (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006), 93-4. For a comprehensive examination of American post-war POW killing see James Bacque, Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans After World War II, (Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1999) and Ralph Franklin Keeling, Gruesome Harvest: The Costly Attempt to Exterminate the People of Germany (Libertyville, IL: Keystone Printing Service, 1947).

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